Madani issue: Chandy likely to meet Shettar

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is likely to meet his Karnataka counterpart Jagadish Shettar to urge him to ensure proper medical care to PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani, lodged in a Bangalore prison in connection with a blast case.

The decision was taken by the state committee of the ruling Congress-led UDF held here Monday evening.

According to UDF sources, all the coalition partners were unanimous in their view that Chandy should meet Shettar to personally take up the issue with him, most possibly in the first week of January.

If necessary, Chandy would lead a ministerial delegation to Bangalore since public opinion in the state was strong that government and political parties should effectively intervene to get a firm assurance from BJP government in Karnataka that Madani receives proper medical treatment, the sources said.

Setting aside political differences, the UDF as well as opposition LDF members had raised the issue in the assembly on Monday, seeking urgent government intervention in the matter.

They felt it was unjust to keep a person in prison indefinitely without subjecting him to trial, especially in the case of a person suffering from various ailments.

Madani was arrested on August 17, 2010 from his camp at Anwarassery in Kollam district and has been lodged in the Parappana Agrahara jail in Bangalore since then.

He is among 31 persons charge sheeted in the case relating to the July 2008 bomb blasts that killed a person and left 20 others injured in Bangalore.